Nevertheless, teachers, students and administrators at Temecula
Valley Charter School say their new temporary campus is wonderful,
and perhaps surprisingly, everyone is pleased about classes
resuming in their new digs after Thanksgiving break.

"It's so exciting, so fun," said third-grade teacher Lois
Hastings about her new classroom while hanging posters, shelving
books and sorting papers Friday. "The kids brought over their
personal things today. They can't wait to come back to school."

The interim quarters are in a recently completed section of an
elementary school the Temecula Valley Unified School District is
building along Algarve Avenue off Winchester Road in French Valley.
The site has been shared by the kindergarten-through-8th-grade
charter school and the kindergarten-through-12th-grade Temecula
Preparatory School.

Those schools are set to move next summer to a 23-acre site at
Abelia and Washington streets to make way for the new elementary
school tentatively called Quinta Do Lago, which is scheduled to
open in August.

Meanwhile, to make room for Quinta Do Lago's completion, the
charter school late last week moved its K-5 classes out of their
portable classrooms and into the already finished part of the
campus.

Most of the new school's desert-beige-colored buildings have
been completed, including its main lobby, library, faculty lounge
and a swath of classrooms.

"We don't know what we'll do with all this space," Jo Ann
Burnett, the charter school's principal, said with a giggle. "We
actually had our first assembly indoors. It was so exciting."

The 250-student charter school is no stranger to moving, having
been relocated five times in the last decade. But the latest exodus
brings the school one step closer to stability, Burnett said.

Next summer, when the school relocates to its permanent home,
which will be adjacent to the district's yet-to-be-constructed
fourth high school, no longer will Temecula Valley Charter have to
share facilities, including the playground, with the preparatory
school, Burnett said.

"We are going back to the portables, but we are actually
thankful," Burnett said. "They've built (Quinta Do Lago) right
around our ears, and we'll have to move again, but we're excited
about that because we'll be home."

Dave Gallaher, the district's facilities director, said the
temporary move into Quinta Do Lago accomplishes two goals.

"We're getting a jump on setting up (the charter school's and
prep school's) permanent campus, and we'll finish building (Quinta
Do Lago)," he said, while checking in on the charter school's move
Friday.

Within Gallaher's gaze, teachers, administrators and parent
volunteers moved personal belongings, their faces beaded with sweat
and bearing looks of exhaustion as well as smiles of excitement and
anticipation.

Burnett said the charter school is 11 years old, and she and
others look forward to continuing its tradition at a permanent
location. Some of those traditions include incorporating parent
volunteers into the education process, using field trips and other
hands-on experiences to teach students and keeping class sizes
small to meet students' individual needs, she said.